In recent years high seismic activity in certain parts of California has prompted scientists to study the possibility that history might repeat itself and that an earthquake of serious magnitude, such as the one which occurred in San Francisco in 1906, might occur again. Such studies have in turn prompted various persons in authority, at various levels, to institute further studies as to what precautions may be taken now to minimize the effect of such an event. One area which in the past has not received sufficient attention is the possibility that a severe earthquake might possibly release dangerous gas and spill dangerous and flammable, toxic and caustic chemicals. This could cause serious problems in laboratories and hospitals, where there are stored a wide range of chemicals, many of which are certainly dangerous and highly caustic. Moreover, many of these chemicals are stored in glass bottles and jars having a wide variety of odd sizes and shapes, so that it is not easy to secure them against spillage and breakage.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has also conducted some studies in the area of seismic safety. At the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, a study task force has delved into this subject. Among other things it was discovered that additional attention needed to be directed to the safeguarding of laboratory chemicals since no suitable restraint system has previously existed. Of course lips on shelves and sliding glass doors on cabinets furnish restraints. However, many of the glass doors on existing cabinets are made of non-tempered glass and therefore themselves constitute a potential hazard from flying glass. In fact, existing laboratory and hospital conditions are such that even an earthquake of moderate magnitude (5 plus on the Richter Scale) could cause heavy damage and injuries in chemical and medical facilities. Breakage and mixture of chemicals pose serious hazards of unanticipated toxic or flammable reactions.
Several existing types of laboratory glassware racks are found in the prior art. One such rack is the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,300,055 to ROHR. This device is a steep inclined plane with cylindrical receptacles extending down from the inclined planer top surface. The device has a bottom surface parallel to the top surface. The bottom side of the plane is resting on a base while the top side of the inclined plane is supported on two rather spindly legs. This device, while it can be made to accommodate bottles or jars of various sizes, would be particularly unsuited to seismic safety because of the legs, which could easily break under the force of lateral stress, causing the rack to overturn or to fall and the bottles to tilt.
A second rack for laboratory bottles is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,480,152 to WALSH. This is a special purpose device which stores certain unstable materials upside-down in bottles so that the material being stored accumulates at the closure end of the bottle so as to help seal the bottle against the entry of air to the inside of the bottle. Thus this particular rack would not be suitable to accommodate most laboratory chemicals and would not be suitable to promote seismic safety.
Another laboratory glassware rack in the prior art is shown by U.S. Pat. No. Design 206,155 to EMMETT. This design shows a holding tray for large numbers of test tubes. One side of the rack is higher than the other side. Thus the top surface presents an inclined plane. This device is a convenient storage rack for test tubes and would presumably accommodate test tubes of different heights, but it does not accommodate bottles or containers of more than one size or diameter and obviously did not contemplate doing so.
Still another test tube storage rack is shown by U.S. Pat. No. Design 206,324 to BROADWIN. This device shows a rectangular box without ends with a horizontal interior partition. The top, bottom, and sides all have a number of different size holes drilled through them. This device does not appear to provide very much stable security for laboratory glassware. In fact there would appear to be a great chance that bottles stored in it would fall down, slip sideways, or tilt if the rack were subjected to any unexpected motion or shaking. It seems obvious that this rack would be the antithesis of seismic safety.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide a versatile laboratory restraint system that will allow visibility of the contents and be adaptable in modular fashion to shelf and counter top applications. The rack should accommodate the actual dimensions of the typical glassware in well-stocked chemical laboratories, that is, it should have compartments or "cubby-holes" which are sized in direct proportions to the actual dimensions and in approximate proportions to the percentages in which the different size and shape bottles occur.